Chaeles geegoe



Earns rrE pprche cI-IAELEs GEEGOE, or NEW YORK,

N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELE AND CHARLES SCHWEITZE-R, OE SAME PLAGE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 342,7l6, dated March18, 1862.

To all whom it may; con/067%:

Be it known that I, CHARLES GREGOR, of the city and State of New York,have invented, made, and applied to use a certain new and usefulImprovement in Machinery for Cutting Cork into Fine Strips; and I dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the said invention, reference being had to the annexeddrawings, making part of this specification, wherein- Figure l is a planof my machine. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and Fig. 3 is a section, ofthe cutters at the line x a'.

.Similar marks of reference denote the same parts.

Cork has heretofore been cut into small strips or fibers and employedfor stuffing cushions, mattresses, &c. My invention does not relate tosuch finely-cut strips of cork in themselves as an elastic material; butmy said invention relates to the mechanism for producing such finestrips of cork; and it consists in the 'emplcyment of a revolving wheelcarrying two different kinds of knives or cutters, the one kind of knifecutting at right angles to the plane of revolution of the wheel, andhence forming incisions into and across the piece of cork presented anddividing the surface up into a series of sections. The other kind ofknife cuts in the plane of the revolution of the wheel, with aprogressive shearing cut that eXtendsvacross the surface of the cork,and the shavingthat is thereby removed having pre viously been separatedby the other set of knives falls away in the form of small polygonalstrips, adapted as an elastic material to the aforesaid uses.

In the drawings, a is a frame of suitable construction carrying theshaft b, driven by competent power applied to the drum c.

d is a face-wheel carrying one or more knives, e. I have shown three ofthese knives. Each is formed with an inclined or dishing edge, as seenin the section, Fig. 3, which edge, being sharpened to cut the cork,does not become heated in use, because there is so little surface incontact with the cork, and hence the out is more perfect. These knives eare revolved with the wheel cl in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 2,and travel with the end of the knife that is nearest the center of thewheel in advance, vand hence produce a shearing cut across the cork thatis being operated on, as hereinafter set forth.

d are arms projecting fromthe face-wheel d, leaving a mouth to therespective knives e. On these armscl are series of cutters f f, set atregular increasing distances from the center of the wheel, as indicatedby the red lines, Fig. 2. 'Ihe distance between the first cutas much asthe width of cork operated on. These cutters f f are sharpened, and areso adjusted that each point travels in nearly the same plane at rightangles to the shaft b, and each set of cutters f traveling in advance ofthe knife e, the surface of the cork presented is scored lwith curvedparallel cuts by said knives or euttersf, and then a shaving taken offby the knife e falls apart in the form of small strips. The cutters fand knives e are to be attached by slots and screws, so as to beadjusted,.or to allow for removal or sharpening. The cork is fed instrips into the mashown two of these feed-boxes. g g are the sides ofsaid boxes. lh is a frame above attached at l 1, and held down byspring-pressure, as at 2 2. In this frame h are rollers i, 7c, and l.The center rol-ler, 7c, is loose on its shaft, while the rollers i andlare fixed on their shafts and become feed-rollers, being roughened orgrooved for that purpose.

m, a, and o are gear-wheels on the shafts of the respective rollers, andthe wheel a is connected by a sleeve withl the wheel p, that is turnedgradually by a screw-pinion, q, moved by arms 3 3 at the end of itsaxis, that are taken by studs et 4 on the wheel d as said wheelrevolves. The upper sides of said feed-boxes are both tted with saidframe h, rollers, and gears, as aforesaid; and the lower sides of saidfeed-boxes are provided each with a set of rollers, gears, and wheel, p,moved by the respective screW-pinions q, as aforesaid. The rollers inthe bottoms of the feed boxes are shown by dotted lines in Eig. 2.

The cork is to be cut into strips of a width corresponding to that ofthe feed-boxes and fed thereinto in two or more layers, according to thethickness of the cork. The fee ing-rollers, pressing upon and carryingthrough the ter, f, nearest the center and the last is to be chinethrough one or more feed-boxes. I have said cork by a slow but uniformprogressive movement, present the ends of the strips to the action ofthe revolving wheeld, carrying the cutters f f and e e, that separatethe strips in manner aforesaid. It will be seen that any length ofstrips can be fed in, and also that the irregular pieces cut off thestrips can be availed of by packing them in between the layers, and bybreaking joints, or lapping one piece on another, the various layers gothrough the feed-box of a nearly uniform width and thickness, althoughthe pieces may themselves be angular at their ends, or in some cases notthe entire width of the box.

The cutting by my machine is very rapid, and all the motions arecontinuous and revolving, hence the machine is more durable than wouldbe the case if the parts received a reciprocating motion. The cutting isprogressive, and hence but little power is required to hold the corkwhile being operated on, and the machine itself runs more4 evenly andrequires less' power tha/n would be the case if the knives acted all ora large ii'umber at one time.

XVhat l claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The revolving wheel d, provided with the cutters e and f, in themanner specified, and

CHARLES GREGOR.

lVitnesses:

LEMUEL WV. SERRELL, Trios. Gno. HAROLD.

